PITTSBURGH – Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh is reporting its first-ever dual organ transplant since the facility started transplanting organs in 1987.
The hospital says a 63-year-old man continues to recover after receiving a transplanted heart and kidney on Aug. 30. The surgery took 10 hours.
The man was suffering from cardiomyopathy or a weak heart. His poor circulation, in turn, damaged his kidneys.
Doctors say one advantage to the double-organ transplant is that patients are less likely to reject a transplanted heart if they also receive a kidney at the same time. Researchers aren't sure why that is, but say it may be because the kidneys store immune system cells that would cause a new organ to be rejected.
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